UK: Sunak wins first vote in upper house on Rwanda asylum law

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak won the first vote in the upper house of parliament on his legislation to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, despite members of the House of Lords spending hours attacking the bill as unethical and unworkable, Reuters has reported. Under the Rwanda plan, which has yet to be implemented, asylum seekers who arrive on England’s southern coast would be sent to Rwanda to live.

After more than six hours of debate on Monday, the Lords defeated an amendment that would have killed off the legislation by 206 votes to 84. The legislation then passed its so-called second reading without a formal vote, meaning it will now face days of line-by-line scrutiny.

According to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the global Anglican communion, the government was “leading the nation down a damaging path.” He warned that it was “damaging for this country’s reputation.”

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Although there was widespread condemnation of the plan, the main opposition party was reluctant to vote against the legislation at this stage over fears that lawmakers could overstep their constitutional role by voting down a bill approved by the elected House of Commons, rather focusing on scrutinising it. The House of Lords is an unelected chamber.

With his Conservative Party trailing in the opinion polls before an election expected later this year, Sunak has invested large amounts of political capital in the Rwanda policy in the hope that it will allow him to meet a promise to “stop the boats”. More than 1,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain on small boats so far this year after more than 300 made the journey at the weekend.

Britain has already paid Rwanda about £240 million ($305m) to take asylum seekers, but nobody has been put on a plane to the African country because of legal challenges.

The Lords are expected to weaken the legislation at later stages in the parliamentary process next month, when they start debating and voting on amendments.

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